332 Big Game Fisbes 



satisfaction in taking a fifteen-pound fish with 

 a single gut snood and a small hook than 

 with a wire leader designed for sharks, or 

 for large and powerful fishes which play so 

 long that their fine teeth are very likely to saw 

 and sever the more delicate equipment. An in- 

 teresting fish sometimes found with the sheeps- 

 head is the triple-tail, Lobotes surinamensis. It is 

 a large and powerful fish, reaching a weight of 

 forty or fifty pounds. It has a remarkably wide 

 geographical range, from China to America, and 

 at many intermediate localities. I took a speci- 

 men at the " Rip-raps," Old Point Comfort, which 

 weighed about twenty-five pounds, the fish mak- 

 ing a very gamy fight, and later I saw speci- 

 mens which had been taken on the St. Johns. In 

 color it is silvery gray, very attractive when 

 taken, and resembling the common " blue perch " 

 of Santa Catalina waters. It is high, short, and 

 "thick-set," the dorsal and anal fins extending 

 so far backward as to give it the appearance of 

 having three tails, hence the common name. It 

 is taken all alongshore, from New York to 

 Florida, but in such limited numbers that it has 

 never been a factor in the catch of the anglers 

 of any locality. 



